This invention pertains to feed lots for livestock, especially cattle, and more particularly to a base for the feed lot which is well drained and cushioned so that the livestock will have a firm but cushioned floor on which to walk and therefore can avoid the strain of traversing lots having deep mud for a surface.
At present much livestock--particularly cattle are fed to market weight in confined outdoor feed lots. The lots provide some space for cattle to walk around in, but the feed for those cattle is placed in feed bunks where the amount, and principally the content of the feed can be controlled. Thus, the ration fed to a group of cattle can be set and followed by providing only that ration in the feed bunk and will not be varied by having the cattle feeding in pastures or the like during the period when the cattle are being finally fed.
Such lots are generally bare of vegetation and are subject to becoming very muddy from excess rain or from snow-melt. Such mud can be churned up by cattle hooves so that the animals can move only with considerable effort, and may become seriously bogged down.
In order to prevent such experience, the present invention provides a floor-like structure less expensive and far more comfortable to the animals than the occasionally-used concrete. That floor-like structure may be composed of waste rubber materials such as baled tires properly placed in the feed lot, and covered with a relatively thin layer of earth and sand to provide proper drainage.